1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a culture apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a culture apparatus for culturing a culture such as a cell, a microorganism, for example, in a culture chamber. Such culture apparatus includes a shelf plate on which the culture is placed, a shelf rest for holding the shelf plate horizontally, and a plurality of shelf supports for holding the shelf rest horizontally, inside the culture chamber, for example (See Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-275, for example).
Before subsequent culturing is started after culturing, the inside of the culture chamber needs to be cleaned. Thus, while leaving the shelf plate, the shelf rest, and the shelf supports used for the previous culturing as they are, sterilizing gas such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) gas, for example, is circulated by a fan in the culture chamber so as to disinfect bacteria caused by the previous culturing, and adhering to members relating to the shelves, an inner face of the culture chamber and the like (See Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-259715, for example).
Since there is a location where the sterilizing gas can hardly distribute due to plane contact between the above-mentioned shelf plates and the shelf rests, the sterilization at this location might be insufficient. Thus, there is a fear that a sterilization effect of the culture apparatus might be deteriorated.